1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical image display apparatus, a medical image display method, and a program for displaying medical tomographic images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, in the field of medical images, often it has been customary for a doctor to check names and regions of tissues that are included in displayed images when the doctor reads images for diagnosis. Usually, the doctor checks the images with an anatomy atlas. However, it is tedious and time-consuming to use an anatomy atlas, and further, an anatomy atlas does not have all of the sectional figures corresponding to arbitrary tomographic images. Therefore, an anatomy atlas may not have sectional figures that correspond to the tomographic images that the doctor reads for diagnosis.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-073397 discloses an anatomical figure selecting method, an anatomical figure selecting apparatus, and a medical network system. Specifically, the anatomical figure selecting apparatus includes an image server recording therein a medical image database (DB), an anatomical figure database (DB), and an attribute information database (DB). When the image server receives a transfer request to transfer an anatomical figure, it reads a medical image, which agrees with a file name included in the transfer request from the medical image DB, and recognizes the body region that has been imaged. The anatomical figure selecting apparatus selects an anatomical figure of a body region recorded in the attribute information DB, which agrees with the recognized body region, as an anatomical figure that is most suitable for the medical image.
However, the disclosed anatomical figure selecting apparatus fails to display an anatomical image corresponding to an arbitrary tomographic image that the doctor reads for diagnosis.